Pre-Match Poser no.21: Can you answer this elite-level football quiz question?

Pre-Match Poser
Pre-Match Poser (Image credit: Future)

Welcome to another Pre-Match Poser…

What completes this sequence: Canada national team, New Zealand football association, Panathinaikos…

We'll reveal the answer this time next week in the next edition of The Pre-Match Poser – stay tuned for that – but for now, here's the answer to last week's conundrum

Q. What connects Lucas Radebe’s team, a Portsmouth loanee, a player who scored in multiple World Cup finals and, according to some, the source of England’s troubles at the 2006 World Cup?

A. The answer is tautonyms: words or phrases that reduplicate part or all of the word. Leeds legend Lucas Radebe played for South Africa, known as Bafana Bafana, that Pompey loanee was Lomana LuaLua, Vava was the first player to score in two separate World Cup finals, and England’s 2006 World Cup base camp was in Baden Baden – where the WAGs infamously ran riot.

More football quizzes we know you'll love

We're suitably impressed (and a little annoyed) if you breezed through that one. So let's give you a few more that will hopefully be a little harder, courtesy of Kwizly.

We begin by testing your internal compass and your loyalty to the English pyramid. We’re asking you to navigate the map by naming every English county to have a club in the 92, a task that requires a deep understanding of the professional landscape from the coast to the heartlands. Once you’ve charted the territory, see if you can match the clinical efficiency of an Anfield icon: how much do you know about Liverpool hero Mohamed Salah?

If your passion extends to the high-stakes drama of the international stage and the roar of a cup final, we have two formidable hurdles waiting in the tunnel. You can delve into the qualifying archives to name every nation to have played at a World Cup... but failed to make the 2026 tournament, or relive the euphoria of Wembley by naming every League Cup final scorer since 2000. From the heartbreak of the qualifying cycles to the ice-cold poachers of the millennium’s biggest showpieces, let’s see if your footballing IQ is truly world-class.

To lower your heart rate after that data-heavy marathon, settle into a comfortable spot with FourFourTwo’s Weekend Crossword 47. Featuring clues on reunions, renaissances and remontadas, it is the perfect way to test your lateral thinking during your afternoon cool-down. To stay ahead of the pack, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for your daily afternoon briefing of curated trivia. You can also secure your status as a terrace legend by joining The Club: our free membership community where you can unlock secret hints, collect digital badges for your trophy cabinet, and battle for the number one spot on our global leaderboards.

Mark White
Content Editor

Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.

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